The first ever recording of Dark Star - painfully short, but so gentle, hypnotic and beautiful. I've loved this pretty much since I found this site and I'm so glad to be able to hear it whenever I want!

The versions of each song heard here are very unique, awesome in their own right, but are not the one's available on LSTIB.

The Born Cross-Eyed heard on that collection is pretty much the Anthem version with feedback placed after it. The version here is FANTASTIC!

The Dark Star on the hit's package (which is also hidden on the 2001 re-issue of Live Dead after We Bid You Goodnight) is a full studio effort, with Pig's 8-note organ riff on it. This version also includes the banjo outro, with Jerry reading spoken word over it. (Haven't heard the remix that ‘crashes’ mentioned, but I will check it out).

All in all, 5 for the sound quality, the songs, and for primal dead at it peak.

This Dark Star reveals the studio potential. To me, this is the two song stud of all GD studio attempts. Lively, energetic, and 100% on point. This is a no frills attempt at studio work without the apparent hesitation of later efforts

there is now a remix of this studio version of Darkstar. Do yourself a favor and spend the $0.99 at Amazon to download it. Whoever remixed (I imagine Phil, as it is SO psycedelic) did a phenominal job. Adding in T.C.s Keyboards, about 15 tracks of Jerry singing (trippe OUT) some acid inspiration at the end, ad a 5 scond banjo outro. Now THAT is the Darkstar for the ages. The PERFECT studio version. WAY worth the 99 cents!!!!

The Dead released a single of Dark Star/Born Cross-Eyed--this is a studio session of it, probably part of the Anthem of the Sun sessions.

This is likely the first recording of Dark Star and the first Born Cross-Eyed. Both of these started in the studio, before they started performing them, which was unusual even for this time. (There were a couple of tracks on the first album that they played in the studio, like the Golden Road, but they soon dropped them from shows.)

Born Cross-Eyed is much as it is on Anthem, but this Dark Star is utterly unique, and quite nice. I wonder how much that single would sell for now.

i went into this thinking it might be amusing to hear the guys attempt to tame the tiger that is "dark star" in the studio. i thought it would fall woefully short of the expectations i have based on live performances.
i was wrong-o!
i wish this went on for hours, that 12-string guitar that comes chiming in is positively divine and i love the conga drums...anyways, this dark star bit is short, but it's a groove! deducting one star because it's too short, but still essential listening!

Listen to Dark Star here, then listen to the Dark Star from 6/10/73 @ RFK. There's something about the sound here that is similar to RFK's version, something in Bobby & Jerry's "sound"... Then again, maybe it's just me...

This is a super ds. So neat to hear it in the early stage. Listen to it twice, at least...

3rd ds ever, word

Assuming this is the single mix of Born Cross-Eyed (that's included on the What a Long Strange Trip collection), then

the Feedback snippet comes from King's Beach Bowl, Lake Tahoe 2/24/68. Listen to Feedback on Disc 2 of Dick's Pick's Twenty-Two, and not far in after Caution you'll hear these same exuberant bursts of cosmic weirdness.

This is about as old as it gets for DS, very cool and mellow, unique among all the Dark Stars. There's several short offerings for '67, put together a disc and include this among the mix.

You have gotta check out this primitive take of Dark Star. It just rolls along in a dream-like state, so peaceful! Let Phil's bass soothe your mind . . . :D

Sound quality is really quite good (studio recording)